It's time for another edition of the column that makes your Tuesday feel better than when you get extra fries with your burger, Notes on a Pac 12 Scorecard. We still miss you, Tom Kelly.
Summaries
USC 38- Arizona 30: For a good portion of this game it looked like Steve Sarkisian and Lane Kiffin had both comeback to the Trojan sideline. Uninspired, sloppy play and a plethora of bubble screens helped put the Trojans in an early 14-0 hole. The Wildcats played nothing like the team that had been humiliated by Washington a week ago. However, CB John Plattenburg picked off UofA QB Anu Solomon on the SC six-yard line and returned it 22 yards. The interception sparked USC to climb back into the game. A 25-yard field goal by PK Alex Wood and a pair of TD passes from QB Cody Kessler to WR JuJu Smith-Schuster and RB Ronald Jones II covering 72 and five yards helped USC forge a 17-17 tie at the break. However, Arizona seized the momentum in the third quarter when they took a 20-17 lead on PK Casey Skowron's 38-yard field goal. Then, UofA HC Rich Rodriguez made one of the dumbest calls of the season when went for it on 4th and 2 at the 50. The USC defense stuffed RB Orlando Bradofrd for no gain. The Trojans took over the ball, the momentum and the game. USC would outscore the Wildcats 21-10 down the stretch to win the game. The most exciting of the three scores was when Jones took a handoff from Kessler and ran through a couple of UofA tacklers en route to a 75-yard TD run. USC couldn't breathe easy in this one until Skowron's onside kick bounced harmlessly bounced out of bounds with 10 seconds left. Jones set the Trojan freshman rushing record with 177 yards on 19 carries and a TD. Kessler completed 22 of 36 passes for 243 yards and two TDs. As for the Wildcats, Solomon had one of his best days of the season, completing 31 of 46 passes for 352 yard and three TDs to lead the Wildcat attack.
Telling Stat: Px2 helps SC; John Plattenburg's interception of Anu Solomon in the second quarter and his TD saving tackle on UofA KR Tyler Johnson in the fourth quarter were instrumental in USC's win over Arizona.
UofA-USC Highlights
Washington State 38- Arizona State 24: Both squads came into this game after suffering crushing defeats the prior week. Wazzu seemed to be feeling the effects of their loss more as they fell behind early to the Sun Devils. A pair of TD runs by RBs Demario Richard and Kalen Ballage put ASU up 14-0 going into the second quarter. The Cougars managed to come within four points of ASU at halftime thanks to a blown call by the refs. Wazzu failed to convert on 4th and 5 on the drive, but got an extra down because of an inadvertent whistle blown by the Head Linesman. Cougar QB Kevin Falk turned that extra down into a touchdown when teamed up with WR Gabe Marks for an 11-yard scoring strike. The teams traded TDs in the third quarter. Then, the Cougars finished strong outscoring ASU, 21-3 in the fourth quarter to claim the win. Falk threw for three TD passes in the final period including a 75-yard hookup with WR Dom Williams that sealed the victory with 4:00 left to play. Falk finished the game completing 36 of 55 passes for 497 yards and five TD passes. ASU QB Mike Bercovicci threw for 229 yards in the loss. while Richard finished the game with 111 yards rushing on 18 carries and a TD.
Telling Stat: Power finish in the Palouse; Wazzu came through on both sides of the ball as they held ASU to just 63 yards while the offense exploded for three TDs and 238 yards in the first 11 minutes of the fourth quarter to put this game firmly in the win column.
ASU-WSU Highlights
Stanford 42- Colorado 10: The Buffaloes have been playing tough this year and just fell short of ruining UCLA's season last week. Many wondered if the Buffs could pull off the upset v. Stanford. They didn't come close. The Cardinal defense corralled the CU offense while the offense steamrolled their way to the blowout win. Stanford turned a 7-7 to start the second quarter into a 28-7 halftime lead behind two TD passes and a TD run by QB Kevin Hogan. The second half was just a glorified scrimmage with the Cardinal crossing the double stripe two more times on a 47-yard TD run by RB Bryce Love and 28-yard TD pass from RB Christian McCaffrey to TE Austin Hooper. McCaffrey had another big day rushing for 147 yards on 23 carries and passing for 28 yards and a TD to go with 58 yards on returns for an all-pupose total of 233 yards. Meanwhile, Colorado never got untracked offensively. RB Donovan Lee scored CU's only TD of the day on a 4-yard run in the first period.
Telling Stat: 75-1/156-11; Colorado drove 75 yards on their first drive of the game and scored their only TD. On their next 11 drives they gained only 156 yards and scored three points as they were manhandled by the Cardinal defense.
SU-CU Highlights
UCLA 41- Oregon State 0: After a scoreless first period, the bRuins hung 24 points on the board in the second quarter to send everyone to the exits early in Corvallis. 1985 Lomita Regional Science Fair runner-up and current bRuin QB Josh Rosen completed 22 of 33 passes for 333 yards and a pair of TDs. UCLA's RB tandem of Paul Perkins and Soso Jamabo combined to rush for 179 yards on 32 carries and score two TDs. The bRuin defense was also a big story in this game, registering UcLA's first shutout win since they beat Oregon, 16-0 in 2007.
Telling Stat: 6-5-1= Shutout; The UCLA defense forced six punts, five turnovers, and held for downs once to shutout the Beavers.
UCLA-OSU Highlights
Oregon 44- California 28: Two things were evident in this game. Cal football is falling apart and Oregon QB Vernon Adams is fully healthy and has the Ducks offense hitting on all cylinders. A pair of Oregon turnovers kept this game form really getting out of hand as the Ducks ran up a school-record 777 yards of offense on the Bears. Adams completed 17 of 29 passes for 300 yards and four TDs. The Ducks also ran the ball well too piling up 477 rushing yards. The Ducks almost had three 100 yards rushers in this game with Royce Freeman, Tony Brooks-James and Kani Benoit rushing for 180, 101, and 94 yards respectively. The Ducks built up a 31-10 halftime lead, then just traded scores with Cal in the second half. Cal QB Jered Goff completed 18 of 41 passes for 329 yards and two TDs in the loss.
Telling Stat: 1; This win for the Ducks was their first Pac 12 home win of 2015.
Cal-UO Highlights
Utah 34- Washington 23: All the pundits were touting this game as their upset special last week. So naturally, it didn't happen. This game was a tightly contested one, but the Utes were able to hold off the Dawgs. For the first time in a few games, Utah managed to force some turnovers. LB Gionni Paul scooped up a fumble and returned it 54 yards for a TD and set up the Utes for another score with an interception later on in the game. Utah's offense wasn't a model of consistency, but workhorse RB Devontae Booker pounded the UW defense with 150 yards on 34 carries and a TD. Ute QB Travis Wilson only threw for 155 yards, but it was his 42 yards rushing and two TDs that really helped bring home the win. UW true freshman QB Jake Browning completed 23 of 39 passes for 257 yards and a TD in the loss.
Telling Stat: The D did it; The defense sealed this win for Utes when DE Kylie Fitts sacked and forced QB Jake Browning to fumble. The fumble was recovered by DT Stevie Tu'ikolovatu with 2:52 to play.
Utah-UW Highlights
Notre Dame 42- Pittsburgh 30: With RB C.J. Prosise knocked out of the game with a possible concussion, QB DeShone Kizer picked up the slack and led the Fighting Irish to victory. Kizer had a career day, completing 19 of 26 passes for 262 yards and five TDs. Kizer's favorite target was WR Will Fuller who caught seven passes for 152 yards and three TDs. RB Josh Adams also had a big day, rushing for 147 yards on 20 carries. ND raced out to a 21-3 halftime lead and the Panthers couldn't overcome that deficit despite putting up 27 second half points. QB Nathan Peterman completed 12 of 31 passes for 223 yards and a TD in the defeat.
Telling Stat: Too little, too late; Pitt's final 13 points came after ND had put the game away at 42-17 with 5:47 to play.
ND-Pitt Highlights
Observations
...Just a bad time; 7:30 and later starts for college football games may be great for TV, but they are crowd killers for the colleges.
...0 for the state; Kansas and Kansas State are a combined 0-11 in Big XII play this year.
...More fallout in Champaign; After firing HC Tim Beckman just before the first game of the season due player abuse allegations, Illinois has now fired AD Mike Thomas. A typical, non-descriptive, description of why Thomas was fired was given out by Interim Chancellor Barbara Wilson, "A change in leadership was needed in order to move forward."
...Poor discovery, dude; Had to laugh at ESPN analyst and lawyer Rod Gilmore as he extolled the praises of Memphis as a possible playoff team while he was working in the late third quarter of the USC-UofA game. Nobody told Rod that Memphis had already been beaten by Navy when he started gushing over them.
...Feeling you, bro; There's an old guy who sits directly across the aisle from me at the USC games. He sits there and rants and raves about the team. I laugh at the guy until I realize that he' saying a lot of the things I'm thinking.
...And there are still two; Central Florida and Kansas are still the only two winless teams left in the FBS.
...Missouri compromise; For Tigers HC and known complete control freak, Gary Pinkel to support his players strike tells me how serious things had gotten in Columbia. It also tells me that Pinkel saw which way the political wind was blowing and by throwing his support to the players, helped forced a resolution to the football side of this crisis.
...A double extension; The USC-UofA game had both the first quarter and second quarter extended by one untimed down due to a defensive penalty. I can't remember ever attending a game where that has happened.
...Question the Fresno State faithful; How does 2-7 feel?
...A tale of two conferences; While the ACC suspended the entire on field and replay crews for their botching of the end of the Miami-Duke game, the Big Ten backed and praised their refs for the blown call at the end of the Michigan State- Nebraska game. SMH.
...Cowboys don't kick; Wyoming has made exactly one field goal this season. Ouch.
...He stuck the pitchfork in 'em; After all the verbal jabs back-and-forth between Wazzu and ASU this week over sign stealing, Wazzu HC Mike Leach got this last jab in after the Cougars beat the Sun Devils, 38-24. " (In) The first half we stole a bunch of their signals, and those helped us a bunch in the second half." Also, after the win. "I saw the sign" was played over the loudspeakers at Martin Stadium.
...They can get two; The Arizona State defense leads the FBS with three safeties this season.
...ND is the Pac 12's Kryptonite; If Stanford does not beat Notre Dame, the Pac 12 will be left out of the college football playoff. If Stanford wins the Pac 12, yet loses to ND, they'll be out. If Utah ends up beating Stanford for the Pac 12 title, they'll be skipped over because they got pounded by a USC team that got beat by ND.
...This just in; Pac 12 Commissioner Larry Scott still sucks.
...Flying under the radar; Air Force is in the running to make the Mountain West Conference title game. If they beat both Utah State and Boise State the Falcons will win the Mountain Divison of the MWC.
...Red Raiders riding high; After upsetting Fordham, 31-29, the Colgate Red Raiders look to have the inside track to the Patriot League crown.
...It's got a name; It seems that every crazy play in college football gets a name these days. It's no surprise that the crazy lateral that kept Arkansas' hopes alive v. Ole Miss is being called the "Hog and Ladder."
...Berkeley Buh-Bye; The rumors were there last year and they are stronger this year. Don't be surprised if Cal HC Sonny Dykes resigns at the end of the season. He almost left for the Houston job last year and wants to relocate back to the south.
...Leaping Leopards, Batman!; The La Verne Leopards of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference are a win away from claiming the league title and a possible D-III playoff bid.
...He just scores touchdowns; Louisiana Tech RB Kenneth Dixon is just three TDs away from breaking the all-time career TD record of 83 held by Wisconsin's Montee Ball.
...Speed v. Power...again; If UO's offense is truly back in form, the Oregon-Stanford game this week could be epic.
...Brett Bielema meet Dr. Freud; Here's the Brett Bielema video for those who haven't seen it. Enjoy.
He said it
Ugly Uniform of the Week: San Jose State wins for this penalty flag inspired ensemble v. BYU last Friday night. It's just...well...it's just penalty flag yellow in massive amounts. Yuk.
Departments
Low Score Game of the Week: Amherst, NY- QB Dan Serignese hit WR Had Bryant with an 11-yard TD pass with 11:43 to go in the fourth quarter to lift the Buffalo State Bengals to a 7-3 win over the Ithaca Bombers. Ithaca held a 3-0 lead up to that point thanks to a 23-yard field goal by PK Max Rottenecker. Neither team did much to shown on the stat sheet, but RB Dale Stewart gained 109 yards on 19 carries for the Bengals.
Blowout of the Week: McMinnville, OR- Last week the Puget Sound Loggers were made it into the Departments section for their 6-2 win over Pacific Lutheran. This week they return to the Departments section for being on the wrong end of a 72-3 beating by the Linfield College Wildcats. Linfield rushed for 355 yards on the Loggers with RB Spencer Payne gaining most of those yards. Payne rushed the ball only 11 times, but gained 211 yards and scored three TDs on those 11 carries. His longest run came midway through the first period when he raced 74 yards to paydirt. The Wildcats built up a 52-0 lead by halftime. Everyone earned their letter for Linfield in this rout.
C.W. Post Press: After taking a 28-27 lead over Bentley College with just :30 seconds left on a two-point conversion pass from QB Jason Kidd to WR James Higgins, the C.W. Post defense collapsed. Bentley drove nearly the length of the field in a little over :20 seconds. Bentley PK Michael Baron came on and made a 31-yard field goal to beat the Pioneers, 30-28. The last second collapse marred a great day by Kidd who threw for 422 yards and four TDs in the loss. Post finishes the regular season with 6-4 record overall and a 5-4 conference mark. Post does have one more game to play as part of the Northeast-10 Conference's Championship Weekend. The real Northeast-10 title game wis between New Haven and Assumption. However, the Pioneers will play a #5-#6 seed game at... Bentley. Yes, the Pioneers get a chance to avenge this weekend's defeat and finish the season on a high note.
...And Now This Week's Three Notes About Nothing
Finally feels like fall around here and that is a good thing.
I like that California brought back black license plates.
Whatever happened to the Abba-Zabba bar?
Until next week folks, remember you just can't leave a game in the hands of the officials.
-The Commissioner
